Humour has always had the ability as long as anyone can remember to bring people together and unify them to become closer and better acquainted. As humour developed over time different categories of humour appeared. Ethnic humour is one of the categories that was created decades ago and continues to be widely used in present day comedy. The concept of ethnic, racial, and gender humour is as sensitive a subject today as it has ever been; and yet there has never been such a prolific quantity of this humour as there is in current day society. It manifests in American culture's films and stand-up comedy routines, as well as on popular TV sitcoms. Ethnic humour is one of the only types of humour that can bring laughter and joy to people while at the same time discriminating and bringing resentment to others. It is because of this dichotomy that ethnic humour is so controversial in the world today. Ethnic comedy is an exclusive form of humour because ethnic jokes can have three extremely different implications depending on the audience, teller and content of the joke.
Why is ethnic humour such an extensively used form of humour in society when it can so easily offend a large number of people? Consider the joke, “Why aren't Jews concerned about the abortion controversy? Because they don't consider a fetus viable until after it graduates from medical school” (Qtd. In Rapport 1). Where the humour is found can be connected to the common reason stated by Nobel Prize winner Henri Bergson, who believed that we find humour in differences and the unexpected (Bergson 3). The humour stems from society’s stereotype that Jews are held to standards of higher achievement and people connect to this and find humour in it. It is this un-expectancy tha...
... middle of paper ...
...
Works Cited
Bergson, Henri. “The comic in General- the Comic Element in forms and Movement-
Expansive Force of the Comic.” Laughing Matters. Ed. Marvin Diogenes. Pearson: Longman, Nd. 2-12. Print.
Davis, Murrary. “Wit’s Weapons: Incongruity and Ambiguity.” Laughing Matters. Ed.
Marvin Diogenes. Pearson: Longman, Nd. 13-37. Print.
“Naming Canada.” Joke. The Joke Shop. The Joke Shop. N.d. Web. 22 Feb 2012.
Rappoport, Leon. "In Defense of Ethnic Humor and Its Role in Our Multicultural
Society." Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2005. 150-63. ABC-CLIO eBook Collection. Web. 26 Feb 2012.
Rappoport, Leon. "The Sword and Shield Metaphor and Other Perspectives." Punchlines:
The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2005. 1-13. ABC-CLIO eBook Collection. Web. 26 Feb 2012.
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental.
The sketch comedy in SNL has been poking fun at ethnic and racial stereotypes, as well as presidents or other high-profile political figures. SNL continuously pokes fun at common stereotypes and government officials – just watch some of their skits on Italian stereotypes, like “Corksoakers” or “Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton Town Hall Debate.” In a way, these sources are here to teach people, even though the skits may be slanted a certain way. Iain Ellis brings up other comedy-news shows, like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, in his article “Political Humor and Its Diss Contents.” These shows sparked in popularity due to their ability to spread news in the form of entertainment and the fact that the anchors “offer a more open-minded and informed alternative, one which takes pride in digging for truths and in providing additional perspectives and points-of-view” (Ellis, 151). News/Comedy shows use their prevalence in today’s society to an advantage in that they know people watch and listen to them. They can sway people in ways to cause social change. If someone watches their show and agrees with them, then their audience is eager to look for a way to change something – whether it be to protest or even joke about the topic at
Australian humour is very unique to Australia, and many other cultures find it quite unusual. It can be described as dry, anti-authoritarian, self-mocking, very ironic and as to stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable. Our humour is seen through our use of slang, print cartoons, radio sketches, comedy series’ on television, films, everyday life and in Australian literature. According to the Collins Dictionary and Thesaurus , humour means, “The quality of being funny; the ability to appreciate or express that which is humorous; situations, speech or writings that are humorous”. Due to its unique qualities, it will become apparent that Australian humour is quiet different to that of America and England and other nations. To highlight the importance of humour through the development of Australian identity, five main elements have been identified. These are, the part Australian humour plays in Australian identity, its unique qualities, its integral part in the Australian identity, the role of humour in times of great hardship and other nation’s perceptions of Australian humour. It is through these elements that it will become evident that humour is an important part of the development of the Australian identity.
Many critics have attempted definitions of Black Humor, none of them entirely successfully. The most significant recurring features of these definitions are that Black Humor works with: absurdity, ironic detachment4; opposing moral views held in equipoise, humanity's lack of a sense of purpose in the unpredictable nuclear age, the realization of the complexity of moral and aesthetic experience which affects the individual's ability to choose a course of action5; and a playing with the reader's ideas of reality6.
Similar to many other lively pleasures, humor can only be experienced if it resonates with a person. Without some kind of comprehension, there cannot be any type of reaction. Only once an outlandish statement, inappropriate remark, or unexpected situation, is remotely understood will a person be able to label it comical or sober. Since there are billions of people worldwide with their own languages including it’s respective idioms, euphemisms, the age old saying of “there is truth in every joke” applies to each culture individually.
In Alain de Botton’s book, Status Anxiety, he argues that the aim of humorists is not solely entertainment, but also to convey a message that isn’t always okay to state directly. There are many places where his argument can apply. Even with humor, some topics are still too controversial to joke about; However, in most cases, humor can lighten things up and make it easier to discuss topics that otherwise would not be as easy to talk about without heavy arguments. There are many cases that would make his argument true. There are many examples that support his argument, and that help to show the importance of humor in arguing, including cartoons, comics, works of literature, and also when thinking of hosts of television programs.
Have you ever stereotyped someone because of their race? For example, all Mexicans like tacos. In a stand-up comedy show Maz Jobrani jokes about middle-eastern people. He gives an example on bombings and hijacks and him being Iranian and the things that have happened to him. Maz Jobrani uses humor in his stand-up comedy show to make his audience laugh about how people are stereotyping other races. He builds up the story to make sure his audience is ready for his punch lines and gets ready for the audience to break into laughing tears. He gives structure by acting out like different people. He used word choice and tried to not get people that offended that would make him look like a bad person. Overall Maz used this kind of structure to let people know that people shouldn’t try to judge people of their race and try not to think of their past but the present.
Green, Daniel. "A World Worth Laughing At: Catch-22 and the Humor of Black Humor." Studies
3. Apte, Mahadev L. Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1985.
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
“Morreall argues that, if we want to answer these questions, we shouldn’t focus on whether the joke happens to trade on a stereotype. Instead, he takes the primary problem with some humor to be that it involves disengaging from things with which we ought to be engaged.” (Morreall, 529)
Psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists study humor because it is a fundamental culture value, but they still can’t determine why certain things make some people laugh and others not. There are “humor quotient” tests that are designed to measure an individual’s sense of humor, but these tests are questionable. These tests aren’t accurate because almost all humor depends on cultural background knowledge and language skills. Not every person in the whole world, or even in one country share the same background knowledge and skills, therefore they cannot have the same type of humor. “The fact remains that individuals vary in their appreciation of humor” (Rappoport 9). Since humor varies from individual to individual, humor lies in the individual. How successful or funny a joke is depends on how the person receives the joke, humor cannot be measured by a statistical
Out of my options available for me to research I first went to the CSUSM library database. There is where I discovered instead of informing my audience about the positives and negatives of ethnic humor, there was much more information available on how ethnic humor is displayed in today’s world and how does it affect our
James Conroy argues that laughter in serious topics has been regarded through the ages as dangerous, deviant, and subversive; yet equally as refreshing, challenging, and constructive. Political humor is extensively used in almost all countries, but political satire is perceived differently from one country to another. The research question is as follows: what factors make political satire an effective tool that affects politics and policy? I argue that humor is more influential when blended with serious topics, such as international relations or politics. Laughter is a great means to put serious topics under the lenses of critical thinking. The use of humor, and political satire specifically can bring about serious political change. Humor can play all sorts of roles in the political process through being informative, educational and influential while keeping its captive entertaining
The study with Race, Ethnicity and Intercultural Communication takes place within Canada. Although it takes place in Canada, one can still see just how much this information is valuable within race and ethnicity and public health. Faiza Hirji, the author of this article, studies how the issue of humor and race fall within race and ethnicity. He looks at the comedian Russell Peters as an outlet for humor within racism. During both of my interviews, they did not mention humor and comedies, but I feel as if this would have been a good topic to see their views and see whether or not they would believe this as a form of communication in racism. “Comedians who incorporate race and ethnicity into their acts can be alternately popular and offensive” (Hirji, 2009, pg 544). Who would have ever thought that comedians would incorporate race and ethnicity in their comedy routines? It just shows how communication in different forms such as comedy will still get their points across when it comes to race and